124 LETTER. FR.OM TOKYO '> :.:.. ,. ; ! q ': : > "' ' : / :: ? >> . T ',: - t " '. ", ?f" ..< '$ .., "r t I"'f:' n . .:,<\ Å ,.: ,(\<'c, '. '}"J t ;;.t' · 't , ., '\ . ... j; : ' "'ii' ".... .\ ä \%;,-< ' :r: ,.::::.,'::\.. .. .. .\.. .., :n.....:::;.. " . ..:. .. .:::..<..\ . : J> I:,: t : ;..:::::.',, :j<..: :....> :<:A :. ' <> ":}?<t"-';:S\;;",::, ?,:::: :>t ." ) t: " .:. "o-..... .... ..:.:;., . } \: :'". .....::.: .:.. .', .. . .. T HE paradox of Japan, thirty- five years after it was left shat- tered and desolated by the Sec- ond World War, is that its swift emergence as an economIC superpower has so overwhelmed it with plenty that it is not unlike some heir to sudden huge wealth who, rather than feeling elated, is embarrassed, bewildered, and somewhat lonely as he tries to adjust to the shock of affluence.. N otwithstand- ing a recent slowdown in economic growth, the country promises to go on outstripping and outmaneuvering its competitors during the coming decade, but in other respects, including cultural and aesthetic ones, the Japanese are for the moment standing still.. To some extent, the process of fast growth has caused Japan to lose not only its bearings but also a clear comprehen- sion of its cherished traditions. In a recent book entitled "Japan As No.. 1," by a Harvard professor named Ezra Vogel, of which nearly fifty thousand copies have been sold in America and ten times as many in Japan, the Japa- nese are depicted as having surpassed the United States economically and managerially in many fields-an assess- ment that is true only up to a point, the auto and steel industries being two of the more obvious examples-but the question of what price they have paid for their inordinate success is left unanswered.. Besides the fact that the Japanese have many trading partners and some allies but only one rea] friend, the United States, with whom their relations remain sound but not always smooth, part of the national price of success is a new complacency that sometimes borders on smugness, or even arrogance, and a kind of dis- pirited hedonism, manifested by a pas- "- .r:. \ .-.. '..-4. ..; ..}i.... ,..., ;.:. :th i .:. ""';: ......... , " , ..... '" '- , " ' .. . 'v , ..... .:.., r ,*,<$:"'-' ".{" : " . , ,,' ,'"".. :, -' .. 'e .AL ":" ....--. ..., ? .. """'^ ....., .' "=< . . .:t . ...\*.... ;:..... ' .. ., ..... . '4\ ' f." .. ,<> : '<:; ì \. :' ',";. '* ."Ä'Ä ,, . ,:, ,. . .., . ...':: ,. ,.", >' þ"-!, .IIi ;, ,;, ,?'i: ': ::: < % '", ..". '; ,:....'(" .;:; ,,( ,. .' ::4' ,. >, J , ';:" -: :.:... .. :... : \>i. . .... ... .. ., , .;: : .:-: $ , sion for trying out everything new, from new foods to new gadgets, all of which make life easier but not neces- sarily more stimulating.. The contemporary paradox is com- pounded, or perhaps obscured, by the fact that Japan is beginning to be more confidently in touch with the world community, though still inhibited when it comes to promoting equality of trade and investment abroad rath- er than just increasing exports-the prime example and prime source of friction, of course, being automobiles.. In many, if not most, respects its greater exposure to the world, as a corollary to its emergence as a major industrial power, has been accelerated as much by such negative factors as the energy and monetary crises, and by strategic and security concerns, as by any creative achievement or by self- awareness.. Still, Japan has begun to assume some responsibilities that it would not have dared to undertake a few years ago.. These include a deci- sion to adopt (not without considera- ble doubt and trepidation) a gradually stronger posture of self-defense, partly under pressure from the U ni ted States but mostly in reaction to a sometimes exaggerated Soviet threat Despite these and other outward- looking signs, the Japanese today, in the opinion of longtime foreign and domestic social critics I know, have remained for the most part as isolat- ed and apart-other-planetary, one might say-and as static in their psy- chological and emotional condition as they were during the Tokugawa Sho- gunate, which lasted from 1603 to 1868, and during which their rulers completely sealed them off from the rest of the world.. Some observers are now drawing parallels between the feudal structure and operation of Tokugawa society and the forms and conduct of today's democratic society, which, though less stringent, is care- fully controlled. There are valid com- parisons to be made, based on the way people's lives during the Tokugawa era were organized and circumscribed by unwritten but universally accepted rules defining the relationships be- tween the government and the popula- tion and among its various classes, such as merchants, soldiers, artisans, and farmers-rules that made clear both the opportunities for freedom and the limitations upon it.. Today s society is certainly a lot looser and more open, but it still operates according to guide- lines, acknowledged by all Japanese, that provide a framework into which they all neatly fit, thus enabling them to function efficiently. It is not surpris- ing that, in attempting to redefine their identity while searching for new values or new affirmations of old ones, the Japanese are now extolling the virtues both of the Tokugawa years and of the Meiji period that followed, when they opened their country to the West and to industrial progress but re- tained their own carefully cushioned styles of language and etiquette, in relation not only to foreigners but to each other.. Some of the most popular current shows on television (which is more of an addiction here than in the United States) are historical dramas about the heroic adventures, martial or otherwise, of famous samurai and court figures. (The American TV series "Shogun" was shown as a full-length film in Tokyo, and had a moderate success) Such television entertain- ments serve as a sort of interim spiri-